300 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



tricts where combination failed and in 

 another district where they were success- 

 ful, with the reasons of failure and suc- 

 cess may be interesting. 



At Predonia, in Chautauqua County, 

 New York, the production of grapes for 

 the table use had reached such large pro- 

 portions that in the absence of appropri- 

 ate concerted efforts to market to the best 

 advantage, returns were sometimes so 

 very low as to be discouraging and often 

 unprofitable. In the absence of concerted 

 action so many car loads might be shipped 

 to one market as to depress and break the 

 price in that particular market when in 

 other towns and cities there would often 

 times be a lack of full supply. This led 

 to the formation of a shipping association 

 which should, through its superintendent, 

 keep in telegraphic communication with 

 the leading markets of the country and 

 aim to place each car where there was the 

 most room and the price for it. This 

 combination was able to secure most fav- 

 orable terms in purchasing supplies; that 

 is, baskets and fertilizers, for its members. 

 It was able to distribute its product wisely 

 in distant markets and avoid overcrowd- 

 ing any particular market. So far the 

 association equalled the expectation of its 

 promoters but serious trouble crept in. 

 The association, however, failed to guard 

 against one serious difficulty, a hardship 

 common to all unions. In a labor union 

 the quickest, strongest and best workmen 

 carry the less skillful and less efficient 

 workmen; so in this crop growers' union 

 the growers who had soil best suited to 

 vineyard work, who were careful cultiva- 

 tors, who properly fertilized the soil, had 

 their product picked and packed with skill 

 and care, found their superior product 

 selling through the association at the same 

 price as fruit grown on inferior land with 

 less careful culture and less care in grad- 

 ing and packing. While the association 

 maintained a corps of inspectors who 

 should examine and check in fruit as de- 



livered, it is not practicable in handling 

 many car loads of fruit daily to inspect 

 with such exactitude as to determine the 

 absolute value of each grower's product. 

 The fruit was sold in car lots at a stated 

 price per basket. This method, while 

 beneficial to the less careful grower, proved 

 to be detrimental in some respects to those 

 who had the best soil, gave the most care- 

 ful culture and packed the best product. 

 In a brief time the strongest and best 

 growers in the association found them- 

 selves selling their product at a disadvan- 

 tage. 



A jobber receiving a car load of grapes 

 and rapidly distributing them to his cus- 

 tomers cannot safely pay more for any 

 portion of the car handled as a car load 

 than the undergrades of fruit within the 

 car, since he can not stop to examine and 

 closely inspect the quality of fruit in each 

 basket. The jobbers in other towns 

 quickly learned not to pay the jobber 

 more per basket than the value of the less 

 carefully grown fruit in the car. Jobbers 

 desiring car loads of superior fruits began 

 to offer one-half to one cent more to such 

 large growers as could furnish a car load 

 of the very best grade. This speedily de- 

 tached from the association the best 

 growers, resulting in crippling the associ- 

 ation. The immense output of grapes 

 from Chautauqua County, is now so 

 widely known that buyers flock to ship- 

 ping points and bid for the product, pay- 

 ing the better growers an agreed price car 

 by car on track. 



E. F. STEPHENS, Crete, Neb. 



PROFITS IN TURNIPS. 

 Turnips are valuable farm and market 

 roots that may be grown as a second or 

 fall crop. The wheat stubble nVld often 

 makes an ideal spot for growing these 

 tubers. Some farmers claim to have pro- 

 duced 800 bushels to the acre. This is a 

 pretty large yield, but there is no reason 

 why half that crop might not be grown on 



